TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Saturday, Feb. 17.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On Feb. 17, 1968, the original Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located on the campus of Springfield College in Massachusetts, was opened to the public.

ON THIS DATE

In 1815, the United States and Britain exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812.

In 1864, during the Civil War, the Union ship USS Housatonic was rammed and sunk in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, by the Confederate handcranked submarine HL Hunley in the first naval attack of its kind; the Hunley also sank.

In 1865, during the Civil War, Columbia, South Carolina, burned as the Confederates evacuated and Union forces moved in.

In 1897, the forerunner of the National PTA, the National Congress of Mothers, convened its first meeting in Washington.

In 1913, the Armory Show, a landmark modern art exhibit, opened in New York City.

In 1925, the first issue of The New Yorker magazine (bearing the cover date of Feb. 21) was published.

In 1933, Newsweek magazine was first published under the title “News-Week.”

In 1944, during World War II, U.S. forces invaded Eniwetok Atoll, encountering little initial resistance from Imperial Japanese troops. (The Americans secured the atoll less than a week later.)

In 1959, the United States launched Vanguard 2, a satellite which carried meteorological equipment.

In 1972, President Richard

M. Nixon departed the White House with his wife, Pat, on a historic trip to China.

In 1988, Lt. Col. William Higgins, a Marine Corps officer serving with a United Nations truce monitoring group, was kidnapped in southern Lebanon by Iranian-backed terrorists (he was later slain by his captors).

In 1996, world chess champion Garry Kasparov beat IBM supercomputer “Deep Blue,” winning a sixgame match in Philadelphia (however, Kasparov lost to Deep Blue in a rematch in 1997). Ten years ago: President George W. Bush rejected proposed Democratic changes to his prized AIDS relief program, issuing a challenge to Congress from Tanzania to “stop the squabbling” and renew it as is. (Bush signed a compromise version into law in July 2008.)

Five years ago: Danica Patrick won the Daytona 500 pole, becoming the first woman to secure the top spot for any Sprint Cup race. (Patrick covered the 2½-mile Superspeedway in 45.817 seconds, averaging 196.434 mph. A week later, Jimmie Johnson won the race, while Patrick finished eighth.)

One year ago: Over the strong objections of environmental groups, the Senate confirmed Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency; Pruitt was sworn in later in the day by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Making his debut on the world stage,

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Life resembles a novel more often than novels resemble life.” — George Sand, French author (1804-1876).

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS